大象传媒

My name is Jack Frearson and I have now retired to Cumbria after an exciting life spent in many different parts of the world.
My seafaring career began in 1939 when, as a Cadet Deck Officer, I joined my first ship in Liverpool.
The following stories are just a few observations of my time at sea between 1939 and 1945:

ONE

Aloft for the first time...............

"Get along to the lamp-trimmer, ask him for a pot of white mast paint, a mast halyard and a bosun's chair and then ask the boatswain how to bend it on and show you how to hoist yourself, in the chair, to the masthead to paint the topmast and yardarm!"

So ordered the Chief Officer. With some trepidation I followed orders but it wasn't until something over fifty feet odd above the deck, with the ship rolling heavily (at least I thought so at the time !) with me swinging from side to side, that I really felt nervous........

It wasn't long though before I got the 'hang' of things and it was with some pride that I descended after the job had been done some time later.

I often admired my work on that mast and yardarm for weeks to come - in fact until they had both been painted wartime grey !
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TWO

PAINTING SHIP.............

War was imminent as we steamed South West across the South Atlantic towards Argentina. Orders had been received from the Admiralty that all Merchant Ships were to be painted grey overall.

The paint which had been stowed away for some considerable time in anticipation of a conflict was 'broken out' and work started to cover everything with this noxious liquid which someone had accepted as 'paint' - the brasswork which we had polished so assiduously, those teak decks we had scrubbed until white, our red, white and black funnel of which we were so proud, and the beautiful white foremast, spars and superstructure over which we had climbed so often - and had only recently painted snow white !
Sacrilege indeed - enough to make a poor sailor cry - well almost !
The black and salmon pink hull exterior was soon covered with this same horrid grey as we sailed along at full speed.
Can you imagine what it was like for a young cadet hanging over the side of the ship in a bosun's chair close to the water whilst she gently rolled along over the 'big-dipper'like Atlantic swells ? Great fun indeed - but this fun was soon to change !

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THREE

D.E.M.S. (Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships)

With the outbreak of war in 1939 all Merchant Ships were to be armed !

The first sign of this was the appearance of a slender vertical tube fitted on top of the chartroom (Monkey Island) above the bridge in the centreline of the ship - what could this be for ?
All was soon revealed - a mount for an anti-aircraft gun - whow !! And what a gun. It was to be either a single 0.3" Marlin, 0.33 Lewis or an 0.3" Hotchkiss machine gun (vintage 1914-18)
NOW we really will be safe - or will we ?
(It is worth remembering that the cowboys and Indians and gangsters of the day were armed with 0.38" and 0.45" calibre pistols !)

"The gunner" is to stand in the open, unprotected from the weather and the enemy but, from "Notes on Gunnery (B.R.219/39) we are told that the gun is - "......unlikely to be effective against aircraft at a range of over 500 yards......that the time of flight of the bullets to 400 yards is 0.45 seconds........and that with a magazine having 97 rounds at 500-600 rounds per minute, all will be expended in about five minutes.."
However, in these same notes, the gunner is advised as follows. "........do not waste ammunition on planes which are out of range.....by day a machine is only in range as long as the struts or national markings are visible to the naked eye.
At 3,000 feet these will be discerned, at 500 feet small objects such as wires and the features of the pilot may be distinguished" - and para 32 tells the gunner and his crew (two).. "The continual noise of the gun when firing may render difficult the reception by the gun's crew of the order "Stop fire".
In this case the usual signal is for the controlling officer to wave his arm horizontally, elbow close to his side.
No.2 of the gun's crew, who should be watching the controlling officer from time to time, will observe this signal, tap No.1 lightly on the back, and order "Stop". "

The next hare-brained idea was the P.A.C Rocket (Parachute And Cable Rocket). These fiendish contraptions were fitted one on each side of the bridge.
We are told: "The P.A.C.Rocket is a device for placing a strong wire, 480 feet long, vertically over the ship in the path of an attacking aeroplane. There is a parachute at each end of the wire, and the effect of an aeroplane striking the wire should cause a violent swerve and possible dive into the sea".........not to mention a dive and crash onto the deck of our own ship with bombs and all !! (Did we give the idea of Kamikase to the Japanese ?).
"The general rules to be followed are :-
(a) Fire the rocket five seconds before it is estimated that the aircraft will be right overhead - it is better to be a little early than too late.
(b) In rough weather the rocket should be fired when the ship is roughly upright.

Safety Note: When firing do not stand near to the rocket or wire box. Apart from the blast of the rocket the wire is inclined to whip about. (And could take the operator up in front of the enemy aircraft"!! This might have serious consequences particularly if the enemy airman is unsportingly firing his machine guns at the time !.....).

A further quixotic invention was the KITE.........a 20' box kite to be flown on a wire from the truck of the mainmast! Imagine trying to get this aloft when blowing a gale - or in a calm ?
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Fortunately, it wasn't long after this that the Admiralty started to take matters seriously and my ship "Empire Gazelle" was eventually fitted with a 4" Quick Firing S.A.Gun aft, a 12 Pounder A.A.(Anti Aircraft) gun forward, four Bofors 40mm light A.A.guns port and starboard, several 20mm Oerlikon A.A. guns centrally as well as two banks of Multiple Rocket Launchers amidships.

NOT to forget the "PARAVANES" to be streamed from the bow to do a spot of minesweeping en route if floating mines were suspected to be in the vicinity........
OR, the "FOG BUOY" to be streamed from aft to help with convoy station keeping in bad visibility.
(The effect of the fog buoy when being towed astern was to eject a vertical column of water upon which the following ship could keep station when the towing ship was hidden in fog).
Unfortunately, this otherwise very useful device proved to be an irresistable target for certain American ship's gunners - with often disastrous results.
OR, the "RAFTS" to be maintained in addition to the ship's lifeboats and to be released from the shrouds should your ship be sinking.........
OR, the "DEGAUSSING CABLE" to neutralise magnetic mines. This cable which completely encircled the ship within the hull also had the unfortunate habit of neutralising all magnetic compasses on board - a serious handicap when trying to navigate - particularly as very few ships of that time were equipped with gyro compasses !
OR, the "SMOKE FLOATS" to be kept dry and only ignited/thrown overboard(?) when your ship was being chased and you wished to create a smoke screen.
(It may have occurred to those who provided these 'floats' that their use could also attract every U-boat wolf pack within a 50 mile radius !)
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FOUR

LIGHTS UPON THE WATER

Steaming westward in a slow 6 knot North Atlantic convoy on a calm, clear and frosty moonlit night, keeping station on the blue stern light of the leading ship ahead - everyone keeping a keen lookout for signs of torpedo tracks or U-boats. (U-boats sometimes surfaced at night in the centre of a convoy where the sound of their motors was muffled by the noise of the engines of the ships in the convoy).
Suddenly, one of the forward lookouts cries: "Lights close on the port bow !!"
Sure enough, one light, two lights, ten lights...............perhaps even a hundred lights - bobbing on the surface of the water like fireflies on a pond. But this was no pond, nor were they fireflies. Suddenly, we realised what we were seeing...........each light was the recognition signal from the lifejacket of a person drifting by !!
Were they alive or was it already too late for them in this freezing water ? Under strict orders not to stop to give assistance or to try to recue survivors in any circumstances, we could only carry on our way - hoping that a Rescue Ship astern of the convoy was still on station and might be able to give help in time to save their lives.
There was not one man aboard our ship that night who did not have a guilty conscience about leaving our shipmates behind.
What happened to those poor souls ? What ship were they from ? Did they survive...........we will never know !

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